Lacking a Good Title
by Rae Logan
Summary: Shadow falls ill, and Rouge has to take care of him... simple enough, right? What if he was delirious? Ooh... that might be tough...


you probably think I'm trying avoid writing the next chapters to my current fics... but I just _have_ to write a full blown shadouge fanfic! this one might be a little darker in tone than my other ones... but, these were just words that were floating around in my head, and needed to come out... I was begining to lose sleep over it.

* * *

Shadow was ill. Seriously ill. It would seem that his many years of torture and torment of his horrid memories had finally taken its toll on him. It had started with the occasional nightmare; waking up in a crazed panic, screaming until he could come to his senses, shaking profusely. Then came the headaches. Oh, how they hurt him badly. He would often give up a day's plan because they distracted him too much. It was not uncommon to find him curled up on the couch, attempting to sleep it off, as the aspirins and Tylenol had made him drowsy. His eyes could sometimes be seen lined with tears, but he refused to let them fall. He always struggled to show no weakness, even when he was close to a breaking point. He refused to look weak. One time before, however, he had fallen into a deep pit of despair, and begged the others to kill him, if they wanted to give the world peace. They refused, and helped him to see the good in himself, as they knew he was a good guy deep down… he was just lost and confused. 

His health took a sharp turn downward, however, and soon a cold had turned into something far worse. He soon found that he couldn't stand without bringing on a spell of vertigo. The room would feel like it was spinning about him, but the image of the room would stay fixed before his eyes. Such a combination would take a hard number on one's sense of balance, and caused Shadow to feel like he was woozy, and would feel so sick, he was afraid to tell anyone, out of fear of vomiting in front of or on them. His spiked quills even began to droop, losing their once glossy sheen, and his eyes began to lack their luminous ruby colored luster. He was beginning to look like a mess.

After about a couple weeks of this, Rouge made him stay at her place, to tend to his needs until he felt better. He began to get worse, instead.

It was a Wednesday night, when it had become the most obvious as to how sick the poor ebony and crimson hedgehog was.

There was a scream that echoed throughout the entire house. Rouge, who had fallen asleep in her chair, reading a book, was jolted awake at the sound of it.

"MARIA! MARIA!"

She jumped up and flew to the living room, to find him caught in the throes of some horrible nightmare. He was thrashing about, face set in an expression of absolute terror. His tired eyes stared at nothing in particular, and in fact, seemed out of focus, dull and clouded, tears falling from fruitless efforts to hold them back.

Rouge stared in the doorway fearfully, unsure of what to do for her hurting friend. At the way he was thrashing around, he was liable to hurt himself in his panic attack.

"_MARIA!_"

The moment the hedgehog broke down in tears, bawling, the bat made up her mind. She flew to his side quickly, and grabbed a hold of his wrists, which tried to writhe out of her own, as he kicked his legs. He screamed as he tried to twist from her grasp, yelling unintelligible words along the way. Rouge tried to keep him still as his body began to tremble violently.

"They killed her! THEY KILLED HER! _THEY KILLED HER!_" He tried to break free from her hold, but couldn't. He shook even worse as he started to come back. His chest heaved as he broke out into a cold sweat, his eyes wandering around before they rested on Rouge.

"… Shadow…"

"… They killed her…" was all he could manage in a whisper.

"Shadow… its okay now… it's over…"

"… They killed her…" His eyes began to water again. He slipped his hands out of Rouge's, and gripped his head behind the ears, then curled up on his side. "…_They killed her_…" His body shuddered with each suppressed sob.

Rouge felt like crying, as well. Here, one of her closest friends was suffering, and she couldn't do much about it. She reached her arm out, wrapped it around him, and pulled him closer, in an attempt to comfort her ailing friend.

"…It's okay, Shadow…"

"…_they killed Maria_…"

"… It was just a nightmare…"

"…_GUN killed Maria_... _because of me_…"

"…Shadow…"

"…_It's my fault_... _all my fault_…"

He was delirious, unable to really hear what was being said to him. Rouge couldn't tell if he was still in his memory, or just lost in his mind.

She held him close, and began to cry softly, not only for herself, but for him as well.

"…Rou…Rouge?"

Rouge went silent. Shadow uncurled himself slightly, and stared at her dazedly. His dull eyes shifted between in and out of focus, as he tried to hold his head up.

"…Rouge?" He repeated slowly. He brought his hand up and touched her cheek, wiping a tear away. He then tried to sit up, swaying slightly as he brought his other hand to his head.

"…Shadow?" Rouge quickly grabbed his arm to help stabilize him as he fell backwards slightly.

"…I'm okay…Rouge…" He said rather breathlessly. One eyelid drooped lower than the other. He tilted his head to try to stabilize what he was seeing. He noticed she was wearing casual clothes.

Rouge took a deep breath and shook her head.

"No… you are_ not_ okay… you need to lie down… you're very sick right now…"

"… I'll be fine…"

"Shadow," She told him quite firmly. "You just had a nightmare while you were sick… that isn't good for you mentally…"

"… I had a nightmare?"

It then occurred to Rouge that maybe it was more like a night terror; he didn't seem to remember any of it at all, and during it, he was unable to fully recognize anything around him, and, moreover, was screaming out and kicking about wildly. She couldn't fully wake him up, either. She had read about those before, and figured that more or less fit the bill. But if she told him, it would probably make Shadow feel afraid to fall asleep, which was what he needed to do.

"…was it bad?"

Rouge paused for a moment, and slowly shook her head.

"No…" She lied. "…Not really…"

"Oh…" Shadow suddenly rested his head on her shoulder. He closed his eyes and fell asleep, rocking gently as he breathed softly through his nose.

"…Shadow?"

He snored a little, just a soft one. Rouge sighed. What was she to do now? It was late, and tending to Shadow's panic episode had been quite tiring. She yawned as she saw her clock read 12:06 am. Shadow looked almost quite peaceful now, aside from his ill appearance. She wrapped her arms around him protectively, unfurling her wings and folding them around the both of them. Shadow shifted to a more comfortable position, to where his ear could hear her heartbeat. He mumbled something unintelligible occasionally. Rouge rested her head onto his, feeling her own eyelids droop as well. Her mind was caught with questions. How did Shadow get so sick? Was he going to get better? When? Why did-?

"…R…Rouge?"

She was jolted out of her thoughts by Shadow's weak moan. He was now sweating coldly, and shaking uncontrollably. She looked down and saw that his muzzle was a little pale in color.

"…I-I don't… I don't feel so good…" He stammered and brought a shaky hand to his mouth to help emphasize what he meant.

Rouge panicked. Shadow the Hedgehog was just about to be sick in her living room. Shadow sat up quickly, gagging roughly, holding both hands over his mouth, his eyes wide. This gave Rouge some time to act. She scanned the room quickly. Books, vase, doilies, dish of candy, trashcan…

The trashcan!

She grabbed it and dumped out the trash already in it onto the floor, making a mental note to pick it up later, and handed it to the poor hedgehog, who was now sick to his stomach. He grabbed it thankfully, heaved right into it. With each passing second, he began to feel significantly better as his stomach emptied out all its contents, purging the sick feeling from within it.

"…I feel so much better… thanks…" He said breathlessly, handing the trashcan back. Rouge's nose turned up, and she felt her own stomach turn at the scent rising from it. She quickly tied the bag in it off, and hurried it to the trash can outside. She came back and brought in another trash bag to pick up the trash from the can before. Thankfully, it was just paper, nothing too messy.

"…Sorry…"

Rouge stopped picking up the paper for a moment to look at Shadow, a little confused.

"For what?"

Shadow gave off an odd little chuckle, before explaining, his eyes beginning to droop again.

"…For a lot of things… ruining the moment we… were just having… getting sick in your trashcan… just… being sick…" He was just rambling a bit. "…being a constant… burden… to you…"

"_Shadow! _I have never once thought you as a burden!" She exclaimed, quite surprised at what Shadow was saying. She decided to pass this off as maybe a fever talking, or something, but at least try to reason with him. "You're probably one of, if not my only, closest friends. I don't mind helping you out, at _any_ cost."

Shadow smiled dazedly, swaying a bit from exhaustion, before giggling. Rouge would have laughed at this sight as well, if it wasn't so serious. She put down the trash bag, and gently pushed him back onto to the couch to make him lie down. He didn't bother to put up much of a physical fight, but growled in protest.

"You_ need_ to rest now…" She told him rather sternly, her bat ears swiveling back to flatten against her head, as she laid a blanket over him. He curled up on his side, hugging the pillow close to him. His eyes drifted shut, and he fell asleep again.

As Rouge picked up the last of the papers, she glanced over at Shadow, and saw him twitching in his sleep. His cheek would tic, as a shudder ran through his body briefly every five to ten seconds. He was dreaming, whether it was a good one or a bad one was unknown to her.

She tied off the bag and set it aside. She sat down on the edge of the couch, and pulled Shadow closer to her again. It didn't take long for her to set it all the way it was before Shadow had to throw up. Shadow stopped twitching, and lifted his weary head a little to stare at her. He leaned a little forward, and planted a quick kiss on her cheek.

"…Thanks…" was all he could manage before yawning and falling asleep again.

"No problem…"

That was the first night he truly began to recover.

* * *

So what do you think? Too dark? Too cute of an ending? What? Please Read and Review! 


End file.
